Biggest names in the Silicon Valley have together filed a lawsuit against President Donald Trump's executive orders banning immigrants from seven Muslim majority countries.
According to reports, technology giants, including Apple, Facebook, Google, Microsoft, Netflix, Twitter and Uber are among 100 others who have filed a legal brief opposing the travel ban order that has sparked protests and chaos across the world.
The brief was filed with the US Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit, which is expected to rule within a few days on an appeal by the administration after a federal judge in Seattle issued a temporary restraining order putting the entry ban on hold.
The brief comes at the end of a week of nationwide protests against the plan as well as a flurry of activity in the Silicon Valley -- a region that has many immigrants who are responsible for many innovations in the world.
Companies backing the filing also include Lyft, Pinterest, Yelp, Square, Reddit, Kickstarter, Github, Glassdoor, Box, Mozilla, Dropbox, Twilio, Zynga, Medium, Pinterest, and Salesforce, the report said.
The filing said that the entry ban, which barred individuals from seven majority-Muslim countries from entering the US for at least 90 days and suspended the US refugee programme, was discriminatory.
“The order makes it more difficult and expensive for U.S. companies to recruit, hire, and retain some of the world’s best employees. It disrupts ongoing business operations, and it threatens companies’ ability to attract talent, business, and investment in the United States,” the companies said in the filing.
“For years, the tech industry tried to stay outside of politics,” said Eden Gillott Bowe, president of crisis and reputation management firm Gillott Communications. “But it’s gotten to the point where they no longer can” remain silent, Gillott Bowe said.
On Monday, Elon Musk's Tesla and Space X also joined the legal brief. However, Amazon appears to have stayed out. Other high-profile companies that haven’t signed the brief include IBM and Oracle, both of which have executives on Trump’s panel, and Palantir Technologies, whose co-founder, Peter Thiel, served as an advisor on Trump’s transition team and remains a supporter of the President.
